Farmers applying for advance payments this fall will be looking at significantly higher rates than were available under the pre-harvest program in the spring.
For Canadian Wheat Board grains, the post-harvest advance rate for wheat will be $90 a tonne, up 12.5 percent from $80 in the spring.
Durum will be $110 a tonne, up 28 percent from $86, feed barley will be $60, up 20 percent from $50 and malting barley will be $80, up 33 percent from $60.
The higher payments are based on the CWB’s July Pool Return Outlook for 2007-08.
The cash advance rates for non-board crops, including everything from canola and triticale to hemp and fababeans, are not yet available. The Canadian Canola Growers Association administers those cash advances.
Read Also
Stacking Canada up on gene editing livestock
Canada may want to gauge how Argentina and other countries have approached gene editing in livestock and what that has meant for local innovation.
This is the first year in which the spring and fall advances have been part of the same program, a result of legislation passed in November 2006. Farmers are eligible for a total combined advance of $400,000, of which the first $100,000 is interest-free.
For board grain, farmers can also apply for a pre-delivery top-up of $30 a tonne on all classes of wheat and durum.
The five-year-old program has failed to attract much interest in its first few years of operation, with 387 farmers signing up last year and 323 the year before.
So why would farmers ignore a program that provides them an additional $30 a tonne before delivery to help pay off harvest and other
expenses?
Ed Thomas, who administers the advance payments program for the CWB, said there is one potential drawback.
Farmers pay the cost of the program through a deduction reflecting the prime interest rate from the time they receive the top-up until it is repaid through deductions from interim, adjustment or final payments.
“It’s certainly not as attractive as it would be if it was interest-free,” said Thomas.
He expects the sign-up to be “at least as strong if not stronger” than last year.
Sign-up for the CWB advances begins Sept. 1. Applications can be submitted until March 31, 2008, but most are sent in by the end of October.
